Following a Road

I was in a room filled with dozens of people. I felt so out-of-place knowing that I was the only one in the room under 25. In fact, I was under 15. I had a notebook and a pen, sitting in a chair in the far right of the room. Not wanting to draw any attention to myself by grabbing  bagels and juice in the back, I patiently waited in my chair until the program started. I used this time to scope out the audience. I’m 14-years-old at a music business seminar. I found out about this event and had my mom drop me off. This became the first of many similar events like this in my life.


This was at a time when I was leaving middle school, took myself even more seriously as a music producer, and was relying on myself as well as God to push me further into a career in music. I never played video games that often, nor did I have cable or satellite TV to occupy my time. I started locking myself in my room with my Optimus MD- 1200 keyboard at the age of 11 and made music until I got tired. I didn’t have but 2 friends. We never hung out anywhere but my room in the basement. The times that I did play video games was when they would randomly stop by on some weekends. We eventually started a short-lived rap group and used my beats for our songs. We recorded on an old, early 90s boom box and a cheap microphone I bought from a department store. We even taped the microphone to hang from the ceiling to give our “studio” a better look. As crappy as that sounds, it was actually an upgrade to my preceding recording technique. At first, I was rapping solo using a microtape recorder. I’d get up close to my stereo speakers, queue the cassette tape to a jazz song I recorded off the radio, and use that song as the instrumental to my rap. 


The fact that I was rapping and making hip-hop beats around this time of my life was odd. Throughout middle school, I mostly listened to jazz and classical music. I went to several high school from the years 2002 to 2006. It was mainly because I was very unhappy and I did get put out of one because of having straight Fs; a total opposite of who I was. I ultimately graduated from the school I started attending during my 2004 junior year. I joined the concert band just as I did at my other schools. I’d play trombone, baritone, and tuba interchangeably. Most of the time it was tuba because either nobody else played it or the section needed my skills to make it stronger. 


I met another musician in concert band that had an interest in making beats. At the beginning of band class, he would play a CD of his recent music. I was impressed but I think he was even more impressed with my work after I let him listen to a few of my CDs. He was a grade above me and before he graduated, he introduced me to a guy who was an A&R for a popular local production team which won Grammys and plaques for their work with national recording artists. The three of us started our own production team and by my senior year we already had a song on the Billboard charts. It climbed up to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In the summer of 2006, right before I was heading to college, we finished up the album with our artist. He was signed to Jive Records. It was cool seeing the label pay for our studio time and extra expenditures (usually food). I was also able to send in music to newcomers like Chris Brown and others who were with Jive. At 17, I received a newfound hope in my life as a producer.


I felt a little discouraged and intimidated being the only kid in that seminar I mentioned earlier. It wasn’t the only time that I was the sole kid in a room full of adults but being there gave me an advantage to those who were of my age. Its also amazing how God sent me through several schools but the one I finally finished at was where I would meet someone who would jumpstart my career as a producer. God guided me through it. I worked so hard at writing raps in my preteen/early teenage years. If it was up to me, I would’ve been a rapper instead of a producer but God obviously had better plans. I leave you with a devotional passage I read from my NIV Bible: 


If you have only come as far as asking God for things, you have never come to the point of understanding the least bit of what surrender really means. You protest, saying, “I asked God for the Holy Spirit, but He didn’t give me the rest and peace I expected. “ And instantly God puts His finger on the reason- you are not seeking the Lord at all; you are asking something for yourself. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7). Ask God for what you want and do not be concerned about asking for the wrong thing, because as you draw ever closer to Him, you will cease asking for things altogether. “Your father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, “Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit”? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He’s continually working out His ultimate perfection for you.